Thank You, Mom….

My mom died 40 years ago today. I try not to miss the gajillions of conversations that we didn’t get to have—about life, marriage, children, and countless other topics—and instead remember the really warm, wonderful times.

The best times were when she’d read to me. This picture of us was taken when I was about 3. My apologies for how awful this photo is…it’s one of my favorites but unfortunately it’s very blurry and old. It does show when the magic of writing started for me.

I’m the youngest of five. We’re all immensely creative in our own ways—three of us are writers, two of us were actors, two of us were gifted landscape architects, one of us is a gifted sew-er (sorry, but without that hyphen it comes out sewer, which is not what I want!). This adds up to more than five because most of us overlap two or more creative endeavors. My sister-the-gifted-seamstress can sit down and sew a wedding dress in an afternoon. Me, not so much. Even when I crochet it can only be things with straight edges, LOL. But I can write and publish a book in five months…no small feat.

I’ve had a number of author interviews in the last year or so, and one main question they all ask is, “What made you start writing?” My mom wanted to be an author and she did write a little bit. It was such a different place and time, though, and she was also very, very sick. But my love of words and the magic of books came from her.

Another frequent interview question is, “How long have you been writing?” “Since I could hold a pen” is my answer. More than writing a story, I’ve always wanted to give that magic, that connection to readers that I remember from so long ago, with my mom. I do have some children’s books inside waiting to get out, but the other stories have been in a bigger hurry to get onto the page.

Her magic and love live on in so many ways……..and this is one of them.